Where I can tell stories, relate experiences and pass along tips discovered while doing research on my family; through volunteer activities, including as an Online Parish Clerk; and from projects completed as a genealogical consultant.

Thursday, 19 September 2013

According
to my wife’s father, Bill McKay, his brother’s name was Ted. That is what he
was called his whole life. His parents called him Ted. So did his brothers and
sisters. His wife knew him as Ted and even put that on is gravestone.

Bill McKay alongside his brother's grave on a visit to Scotland in 1969

We
naturally assumed, then, that his name was Edward or Theodore or something
similar and concentrated our searches for Ted or Edward MacKay. We didn’t find
him though!

Quite
by accident, I heard from one of his granddaughters. I had posted a message to
the Moray County, Scotland list on Rootsweb in August 2004. I was looking for information
about Isabel Scott, wife of Hugh MacKay. They were grandparents of Bill and
Ted. I was not specifically looking for data on Ted but had been tracing back the
family and had found Bill and Ted’s parents, Alexander MacKay and Mary Ann
Milne and, from them, Alexander’s parents, Hugh MacKay and his wife, Isabel
Scott, living in Findhorn, Morayshire, Scotland. This was before the 1911
census had been released so I did not have the benefit of seeing the whole
family listed. We only had the names of Bill’s siblings as he knew them –
including, of course, Ted!

Isabel
Scott was born in Knockyfin, Morayshire (sometimes spelled Knockphin) and I
wanted to know more about the area as well as her family. That was the subject
of my 2004
Rootsweb query.

An
email arrived in November 2007 from Ted’s granddaughter who said, “I am also a
descendent of Isabel Scott - just got her birth certificate yesterday so was
looking for the same place!” Isn’t it neat when you find another cousin on the
mailing lists! And from a message posted over three years earlier!

We
started comparing notes about the family. She knew her grandfather had a
brother named Bill but did not know he had moved to Canada or anything about
his family. We were shooting in the dark, looking to expand our knowledge about
the MacKay family left in Scotland.

One
of the first things she told us was that her mother’s father, Ted, was actually
named Augustus Storm Mackay. What a surprise! And no wonder he called himself
Ted!

From
then on all of the pieces fell right into place. As documents were released for
viewing on ScotlandsPeople, we
were able to confirm Ted’s real name on the 1909 birth, 1933 marriage and 1911
census records.

No
one really knows why he was saddled with that particular name. His parents lived
next door to a family by the name of Storm in Findhorn Village, Kinloss.
Alexander was a salmon fisherman and his neighbour, James Storm was a
yachtsman. They were both born in Findhorn, of similar age, likely involved in
the same industry and probably also close friends. That may explain part of Ted’s
name. Where the name, Augustus, came from is still a mystery, though.

Anyway,
through an accidental contact made by asking a question on a Rootsweb mailing
list, we found a new set of cousins and found out the true identity of an
uncle.

Sunday, 15 September 2013

This is a story illustrating the confusion of surnames
used by one family and what erroneous conclusions can be drawn from limited
information. I found this while transcribing parish registers of Plympton
St. Mary parish, Devon.

On the face of it, there are a curious set of comments
on the baptism register from Plympton St. Mary parish. On two baptism entries,
in 1873 and 1874, children are shown with only one parent, Elizabeth Nicholls.
No father is indicated.A statement was
made on both occasions that might lead one to think there was some
hanky-panky going on!

The 1873 baptism for Mary Nicholls has a note that
says her mother, Elizabeth, was “living
with her deceased sister’s husband.” The 1874 baptism for Mary’s brother,
Ernest, had a similar note which said Elizabeth was “living with her sister’s
widower, Thomas Mackenney.”

In 1859 Thomas McKenny had married Eliza Nicholls, the
sister of Elizabeth Nicholls.

1859 marriage record for Thomas McKenny and Eliza Nicholls, Plympton St. Mary parish

1861 England Census - Thomas and Eliza Mackenny family, residing at North Side of Underwood, Plympton St. Mary parish

Eliza died in 1870 leaving Thomas with six young children. In 1871, Elizabeth Nicholls was living with her
brother-in-law and his children. Perhaps she had come
to help out after her sister’s death the year before.

Civil registration documents show Thomas and Elizabeth
were married in Plymouth in 1872. Birth records for both Mary and Ernest were
registered with the name of MacKenny, even though the baptism entries said
their name was Nicholls.

This is an example of the prohibition against a man
marrying his deceased wife’s sister in effect at the time. The refusal to
approve such marriages was part of early canon law based on the
interpretation of texts from the Old Testament. It became an absolute civil ban
with passing of the Marriage Act of 1835.
It was not repealed in Britain until 1907. While the births of the children
were recorded by civil authorities with the man’s surname, it is obvious that
the church refused to recognize the union, if they even knew. Nor would the
church have sanctioned the marriage ceremony in the parish in which they lived.
Very likely the marriage itself was done under license and the parties did not
tell the entire truth about the relationship of the sisters.

Regardless, the baptism information could lead one to
search for quite different people without having first looked at other records
for the family and unraveling a bit of history first. The note in the register
about the mother’s living arrangements does give a clue about what was going
on.

By the way, the prohibition against a wife marrying a
dead husband’s brother was not lifted until 1921.

Curiously, I have not found a baptism record for the
last two children born to Thomas and Elizabeth after 1874. The marriage record
for one of them, Bessie, indicates she was married after banns; so she must
have been baptized someplace.

The lesson here is that not all is what it may seem
from entries and notes in the parish registers. It is always necessary to look
at all the information available, as well as review the data in light of
historical conditions, in order to get the real story.

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Miller-Watson Family Ca 1886

The photo in the background of this website is of the Miller-Watson Family, taken in Manhattan, Kansas, USA, around 1886. My great-grandfather, Isaac Mayfield Miller, is in the back row, second from the right. My 2nd great-grandmother, Hannah Tunstal (Mayfield) Miller-Watson, is seated front-centre. The other individuals are all of Hannah's other children from both of her marriages.

About Me

Wayne has pursued family history research for a number of decades, on
his own behalf and for others. He volunteers as an Online Parish Clerk,
handling four parishes in Devon, England. Wayne has also been active with a number of family history societies and is the past editor of two family history society journals. He is also an author of several articles
published in a number of different genealogical journals and has made
presentations at genealogical conferences. Following a long and successful
career as a geologist in the oil & gas industry, Wayne now pursues
genealogy as a hobby and a second line of work through his business, Family
History Facilitated.

Wayne is a native Calgarian and a descendant of many immigrants to
southern Alberta who originated in England, Scotland, Germany, the United
States and possibly other areas not yet determined. He actively explores many
family branches spread across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and
Europe.